Victor Sardenberg

In September 2021, we decided to look back at the models produced at dMA Hannover during the covid crisis. I co-curated and co-organized the exhibition at the Leibniz University Hannover.As architectural models and physical prototypes seem to have lost relevance in online formats and remote work, we would like to reinforce their importance in our design process. They are rigorous devices for iteratively developing architectural ideas and inventing novel methods of making. The exhibition showcases physical objects made of a range of materials from ones familiar to the building industry, like wood and aluminium, to unfamiliar ones, like foam, wool, or nylon. The fabrication techniques utilized range from established ones such as CNC-cutting, laser-sintering, and 3d-printing to techniques that are currently being developed at dMA, like robotic wire-cutting, needle felting, and autonomous mobile platform thread positioning. It’s all a blur, is as much stock-taking as an outlook of post-pandemic prototyping.